


To Tame a Fire

by wanderingastro



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, SHEITH - Freeform, Shiro would bring the universe to its knees for Keith thx for coming to my tedtalk, Voltron, but they LOVE EACH OTHER BEECH, its not explicitly stated they're in a relationship, vld, voltron s7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 16:58:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15645027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingastro/pseuds/wanderingastro
Summary: Shiro spends a reflective moment at Keith’s bedside before facing the world.





	To Tame a Fire

**Author's Note:**

> this is 100% inspired by this [post](http://flashedarrow.tumblr.com/post/176856237218/im-looking-forward-to-all-the-fic-of-those) :)

If there is one thing Takashi Shirogane is not, it’s haughty.

Shiro is a man who appreciates logic, and he knows that all the flying and the simulator scores, and his young age do not make him some kind of god. Shiro knows better than anyone the amount of sweat and determination and focus it takes to be the Garrison’s top pilot. But Shiro is not oblivious, and he notices the way people stare when he enters a room, or the quiet whispers that follow him when they think he’s out of earshot, how even the most seasoned generals will scramble from their seats just to shake his hand. Sometimes Shiro hates the gravitational pull his presence holds, but usually Shiro just ignores it.

He is a man, once a man with a degenerative muscle disease, and now a man held together by the remains of a clone body. Shiro is just a man, but as he sits in the hard plastic chair of the sparsely furnished hospital room, Shiro realizes that maybe he finally understands the way the cadets look at him, because Shiro knows that awe and reverence, edged with a quiet fear. Shiro knows it because he looks at Keith the same way others look at _him_.

Of course, Shiro doesn’t _only_ look at Keith that way. Shiro looks at Keith with gratitude, and with humor and adoration and annoyance, and every emotion in between. But sitting here, knees knocking against the cold metal of Keith’s hospital bed, watching Keith’s chest rise and fall along to the steady beeping of his heart monitor, Shiro can’t help but gaze at him in awe.

He thinks of the shocked look Keith had given him when Shiro had admitted he was grooming Keith to be his successor as the leader of Voltron. Shiro remembers how burning Keith’s anger and shame had felt when he was forced to take over the black lion, failing his team in their first mission. Shiro had not quite been there, somewhere on the edge of reality, at the cusp of consciousness, but Shiro remembers the bitterness of Keith’s anger all the same.

Keith had always kept himself just a step out of reach, because for all of Keith’s thunder and ferocity and passion, he was frightened of being hurt.

Shiro thinks of what it is to tame a fire, to love and protect and calm a fire.

It is more difficult than any physics exam, more exhausting than any flight simulator, more harrowing than fighting in an arena, but it is also infinitely more rewarding.

Keith’s heart rate peaks for a moment, and he shuffles in his sleep. The gauze bandage wrapped around Keith’s head stands out sharply against his raven hair. Shiro picks up his chair, and shuffles even closer to Keith. He reaches forward, tracing the dark locks that fall haphazardly over Keith’s face. Shiro smooths down the crease between Keith’s brows, and feels his cheeks warm when Keith’s heart monitor jumps at the touch. As if Keith knows it’s _Shiro_ touching him.

Shiro has made many difficult decisions in his life.

He remembers enlisting in the Galaxy Garrison, handing his life and his freedom over to a cause larger than himself. Shiro was meant for the stars.

He remembers the fateful meeting in Admiral Sanda’s office, where Sam Holt had been willing to give up Kerberos to ensure Shiro could come too. Shiro would have sacrifice anything to see the stars, even just once.

He can practically feel the searing heat of the black Bayard pressed against his throat, Zarkon towering above him as he died. At least Shiro had died amongst the stars.

And then Shiro remembers a young boy at the edge of the classroom, head in his hands, eyes on the sky.

Shiro runs a light finger over Keith’s Galra mark, and Keith’s eyelashes flutter.

Shiro remembers the heat of the setting sun against his back, desert dust in his throat. He remembers the triumph in his chest as he heard a roar behind him, and Keith appeared, overtaking Shiro’s speeder with a loud whoop of victory.

Keith’s lips are parted just slightly as he breaths softly in and out.

Keith was meant to be a leader, so Shiro learned to tame a fire, and now earth owes Keith and Voltron its existence. Shiro's heart twists with the thought and he thinks he might cry.

There’s a throaty grumble behind him, and Shiro turns his head, clearing the wet itch in his throat. Iverson stands there flocked by two med cadets who flitter beneath his gaze.

“We’re ready, Captain Shirogane.”

Shiro stands, smoothing down his crisp garrison uniform. War has come and gone, and though there is still much left to do, now is the time to mourn, and to heal.

Shiro advances towards Iverson, but as he reaches the threshold he turns to take one last look at the man who sleeps peacefully in the late afternoon sunlight.

Shiro decides Keith Kogane was the best decision he ever made.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to come yell with me about season 7 you can find me on [tumblr](https://solarshiro.tumblr.com) :)


End file.
